In this special season finale episode, hosts Tracey Pearson and Jamie Bennet welcome Kresge Foundation President & CEO Rip Rapson back to reflect back on the stories heard throughout the series and to share an exciting announcement about the future of Kresge. In this conversation, Rip also looks back on his journey to Detroit, reflecting on formative experiences and the influences his architect father and librarian mother had on his development as a leader, thinker, and citizen. And Rip does not escape the PathBreakers “lightning round” tradition … Tracey and Jamie ask Rip 10 “hard-hitting” questions with surprising answers. 

Read more about Kresge’s big news 

Read Rip’s book, Drawn to Challenge 

See Rip Rapson’s Drawings: Visual Maps to Change

What is the purpose of an economy? What if economies were centered on people instead of money? What if everyone had access to both income AND wealth? These are the questions Dr. Darrick Hamilton works to problem-solve at the Institute on Race, Power, And Political Economy – an academic center he founded and directs at the New School in New York City, where he and his colleagues work to create “knowledge for action.”

In this episode, Dr. Hamilton delivers some “Political Economics 101” delving into inclusive economic rights, human-centered economies, and trust-based governance. He also explains how his Baby Bonds program is leveling the economic playing field for over 33,000 babies in Connecticut and how investing in low-income and low-wealth people leads to positive economic benefits for everyone.

Learn more about the Institute on Race, Power, And Political Economy

Learn more about Baby Bonds

Dr. Beverly Wright has been working in climate and environmental justice since before the movement had a name. After 30+ years of leading groundbreaking community-based participatory research in her hometown of New Orleans, Dr. Wright is a celebrated pioneer of the field. Since 1992 she has been the visionary executive director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, the organization which she also founded. 

In this episode, Dr. Wright reflects on a post-Katrina New Orleans and her journey from sociologist to movement leader. She also discusses the “communiversity” learning model that she developed for the Deep South Center and the ways they are cultivating the next generation of climate leaders. 

Learn more about The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice

After a challenging experience of her own as a low-income, first-gen college student, Dr. Bridget Burns understood that higher education was not “user-friendly” for everyone. And from that, her career mission became clear: transform colleges and universities into places where low-income, first-generation and students of color could not just navigate, but thrive.

Dr. Bridget Burns is the CEO of the University Innovation Alliance, a multi-campus laboratory for student success innovation. In this episode, Dr. Burns shares her approach to fostering trust and openness in a competitive community and discusses how empathy is the first step in design. She discusses the UIA Listening Lab model for collecting student feedback and

also reflects how the principles of improv theater inform her approach to problem-solving. 

Read more about the University Innovation Alliance

Find free resources from the UIA

Watch the documentary Unlikely featuring Dr. Burns

Cardell Orrin spent years as a high-level IT strategist and engineer. Now, as the executive director of Stand for Children Tennessee, he is “debugging” the processes by which parents and community members in Tennessee engage with their local school boards and state representatives. It’s a debugging that’s needed across America’s school systems. 

In this conversation, Cardell reflects on a childhood of being “dragged around to school board meetings” by his mother, and the “cynical optimist” problem-solving mindset it helped him develop. Cardell also discusses the specific ways Stand for Children Tennessee helps connect the dots for citizens who want to get involved in education advocacy, and what is at risk when a state proposes taking over a local school district. 

Read more about Stand for Children Tennessee 

Learn more about the 901 Moral Budget Coalition

The natural topography and the social geography of Springfield, Massachusetts make it a place especially vulnerable to climate change. Samantha Hamilton is bringing Springfield residents together to develop climate solutions for their city. 

Samantha Hamilton is the Director of Coalition Building and Community Engagement at the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts in Springfield, MA. In this episode she explains how diverse coalitions – including a broad spectrum of residents, nonprofits, and municipal organizations – are best equipped to tackle complex and interconnected issues like air quality, housing, education, and health disparities. She also talks about her strategies for cultivating commitment in community participation, and how resident-guided problem solving can inform and impact local and state policy.

Quetzal Flores is a Grammy-winning musician who combines his immense creative skillset and his deep knowledge of cultural traditions to ignite community participation in resistance and resilience.  

In this conversation, Quetzal recounts growing up “in movement” with parents who were deeply involved in the civil rights organizing of the Chicano Movement. He describes East LA's historical significance, its current cultural landscape, and what's at stake in the neighborhood today. Quetzal also reflects on the musical and cultural experiences that have shaped his approach to community powerbuilding. 

Learn more about the Community Power Collective

Hear music from the band Quetzal

Watch some beautiful music videos from Quetzal and his band

As a kid, Richard Burrell lived in the motels along Parkway Drive in Fresno, California. As an adult he founded and runs an organization that supports the wellbeing of the kids who live there now. 

Richard Burrell is the founder and executive director of Live Again Fresno, a nonprofit after-school and community support organization that “co-powers” children and families in Fresno’s most vulnerable communities by providing mentorship, education, and holistic support to break cycles of poverty and build brighter futures.

In this conversation, Richard reflects on his own childhood growing up on “Motel Drive” and the day he informally started what has now formally grown into Live Again Fresno. Richard’s work exemplifies the healing powers of trauma-informed frameworks and the importance of organizational leadership living in deep relationship with the community it serves. 

Learn more about Live Again Fresno

Read more about the documentary Richard was part of called Motel Drive

Dr. Mona Hanna, affectionately known as “Dr. Mona”, is best known as the pediatrician who exposed the Flint water crisis. She is also the associate dean for Public Health at Michigan State University and now the founder of RxKids – a cash prescriptions program for expectant mothers in Michigan and currently the largest cash-transfer program in the country.

In this episode, Dr. Mona reflects on how her experience in medical school and her experience navigating the Flint water crisis inform her approach to public health. She also discusses the impact and financial efficiency of RxKids, and how a program like RxKids – which centers love and trust by design – significantly improves health outcomes for babies and new mothers. 

Find Dr. Hanna’s book, What the Eyes Don’t See, and learn more about RxKids:

• https://rxkids.org/

• What the Eyes Don't See

Marcia Black is a Detroit-based archivist, curator, and cultural preservationist whose work focuses on preserving the histories of Black women, Black Detroit, and the Black radical tradition. Guided by her education at Marygrove College and inspired by her entrepreneurial grandmother who was a beauty salon owner, computer worker, and reverend, Marcia has dedicated herself to archival work with a purpose.

In this episode, Marcia reflects on her approach to collecting oral histories with Detroit’s Black elders, and ways those elders and their stories can inform a reimagining of Detroit’s future. 

This discussion also explores ideas around archiving, pushing back against cultural erasure, and the opportunities for community-led reparations efforts through projects like the I-375 Reparative Roundtable – a group of 20 stakeholders addressing the historical injustice of Detroit’s interstate construction in the 1960s. 

Learn more about Marcia, the Black Bottom Archives, and the Detroit Reparative Roundtable

• https://www.blackbottomarchives.com/

• https://detroitisdifferent.com/keeping-the-flame-marcia-black-on-black-women-archives-and-the-legacy-of-black-detroit/

• https://www.michigan.gov/mdot/projects-studies/special-construction/i-375-reconnecting-communities-project